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Sisen Ramen (四川辣麺)

One of the greatest successes of fusion cuisine would have to be tantan-men (担担麺), the Japanese version of dan dan noodles, a Szechuan specialty. Sisen Ramen is a chain of about eight ramen stores in Osaka which serves nothing but variations of tantan-men. Woohoo!

By the leg of this trip, we were staying at Swissotel Nankai which is probably the most luxurious hotel in Osaka, and luckily, Sisen Ramen and CoCo Curry were only across the street! (Pssst, I’ll be blogging about Swissotel soon!)

It’s a charming little restaurant, simply furnished with communal tables and stools flushed against both walls. The decor includes some quaint Chinese touches but has a modern appeal.

We’re here just after the lunch rush and witness the last few businessmen slurping up their ramen.

The waitress brings out oshibori, glasses of icy water, sets of menus for all of us and one token English menu. It says “soup base used for our ramen are cooked by boiling pork and chicken bones and vegetables. Rich source of vitamins, minerals and collagen”.

“What’s good about sesame: Sesame is a source of high quality protein and has the 12 times the amount of calcium than milk, 5 times the amount of iron of spinach and other vitamins as well. It also contains sesame lignin, said to destroy active enzyme linoleum and oleic acid said to remove cholesterol, helping your body with anti-aging and keeping in good balance.”

Wait. So it’s tasty, and good for us?

Some of us have the Tantan-men Shinaji lunch set (¥820) which is their recommended ramen. It is a bowl of mild and spicy sesame based broth with chunky roast pork, Chinese cabbage and firm thin threads of ramen plus a side of fried rice. The flavours are rich and nutty and and the pork is divinely flaky and moist.

Others, have the Tantan-men Motoaji lunch set (¥820) which is ramen served in a vivid red broth topped with thinly sliced spring onion, Chinese cabbage and pork mince plus a side of fried rice.

I order the Tantan-men Motoaji ramen only (¥700) and add a side of gyozas. The gyoza are deliciously crisp and the filling of mince and cabbage is fragrant with sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and garlic.

The frozen lychee served with each bowl of ramen cleanses the palate and completes this very satisfying tantan-men experience, and we head back out into the heat, glad to have ticked an authentic tantan-men ramen experience off the travel to-do list.

Jennifer Lam (Jenius)

Jennifer is the founding blogger of I Ate My Way Through (originally, Jenius.com.au).
Growing up in the multicultural melting pot of Sydney’s West as a second generation Australian (of Vietnamese refugee parents of Teochew Chinese ancestry), Jen has always had a deep curiosity about global cuisines, culinary heritage and the cultural assimilation of immigrants. For Jen and her family, food is always at the centre of all celebrations, life events and milestones.
A lover of the finer things in life, as well as cheap eats, her blogging ethos is all about empowering people to have good food and invigorating adventures - because life is too short for mediocre meals or dull travel.
When not running her two companies (she is also the Managing Director of The Bamboo Garden online marketing agency), Jen can be found exploring vintage markets and local eats around the world. She has a weakness for fried chicken.

In 2009 I stayed at a hotel just around the corner and found this by accident...until today my favorite Tantanmen Ramen in the world...thanks for giving me the name and location again as I thought I'd lost it...and I used your blog to show other friends the way too! All the best & cheers, Nik

You know, I was there just last week :-) I actually find the noodles here to be not quite hot enough. Did you try the ramen place approx 50m further up the road? Neither are crash hot noodle places but I guess it's passable for a quick meal.
By the way I hope you also went up to dotonbori for a few meals. Pretty sure that you'd have loved that area :-)

I Ate My Way Through is an online food and travel concierge service for savvy food lovers and travelholics.

From our humble roots as one of Australia's longest running food blogs, we started as Jenius.com.au in 2006 and begun a series of I Ate My Way Through eating tours in 2009. Both brands joined forces in mid-2013 to better showcase the best restaurants, cafes, producers, manufacturers and lesser-known hot spots in Sydney and beyond.